The second-generation Eero, unveiled on Tuesday, might change all that. The company says it has managed to make its base station and satellite routers even smaller while significantly boosting their performance. The new Eero base station offers twice the performance of the original, while the updated eero Beacon, a range extender that resembles a wall-hugging nightlight, will deliver a 30 percent speed boost compared to its predecessor.

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The result, Eero says, is that multiple members of your family should be able to download large files, make FaceTime calls, or play virtual reality games without suffering speed lags. That's reassuring to anyone considering plunking down several hundred dollars to blanket their home with Wi-Fi. The current-generation Eero's performance is solid, with the base station delivering 469Mbps of throughput in PCMag's close-proximity (same-room) test, but it is a bit slower than the Linksys Veloop, which delivered 556Mbps.

The second-generation Eero system comes in a bundle of one Eero and one Eero Beacon for $299, which should be enough to cover a two-bedroom home. Larger buildings will need the $399 bundle, which comes with one Eero and two Eero Beacons. Owners of either the first-gen or second-gen hardware (the two can serve together in the same home) also have the option of adding the new $9.99 monthly Eero Plus security subscription, which adds expanded parental controls and checks every website you visit against a database of online threats updated in real time.

Oh, and Eero's "one more thing" announcement is that should you have limited electrical outlets, the second-gen Eero beacon comes with a downward-facing bulb whose brightness automatically adjusts based on the room's ambient light, so you don't have to chose between fast Wi-Fi and tripping over a dog toy on your late-night bathroom runs.

As a hardware analyst, Tom tests and reviews laptops, peripherals, and much more at PC Labs in New York City. He previously covered the consumer tech beat as a news reporter for PCMag in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where he rode in several self-driving cars and witnessed the rise and fall of many startups. Before that, he worked for PCMag's sister site, Computer Shopper, where he occasionally dunked waterproof hard drives in glasses of water. In his spare time, he's written on topics as...
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